Booker T. Washington

I further contended that, in relation to his vote, the Negro should more and more consider the interests of the community in which he lived, rather than seek alone to please some one who lived a thousand miles away from him and from his…

In this address at Madison I took the ground that the policy to be pursued with references to the races was, by every honourable means, to bring them together and to encourage the cultivation of friendly relations, instead of doing that…

As a rule, the place to criticise the South, when criticism is necessary, is in the South—not in Boston.

I have found that there is a large element in the South that is quick to respond to straightforward, honest criticism of any wrong policy.

While pursuing this policy I have not failed, at the proper time and in the proper manner, to call attention, in no uncertain terms, to the wrongs which any part of the South has been guilty of.

I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.

I determined never to say anything in a public address in the North that I would not be willing to say in the South.

When I first came to Tuskegee, I determined that I would make it my home, that I would take as much pride in the right actions of the people of the town as any white man could do, and that I would, at the same time, deplore the wrong-doing…

I have always had more of an ambition to do things than merely to talk about doing them.

The school is strictly undenominational, but it is thoroughly Christian, and the spiritual training of the students is not neglected.

While a great deal of stress is laid upon the industrial side of the work at Tuskegee, we do not neglect or overlook in any degree the religious and spiritual side.

Some of the most successful men and women who have graduated from the institution obtained their start in the night-school.